Hi guys!
So, here I am and with a very interesting challenge for all of you...
There is a village in Drama (Eastern Macedonia) called "Mikrokampos" (Μικρόκαμπος), in Greek. Ιn English, this cοuld be roughly translated and... dissected as: "small" (μικρός - mikros) + "plain/flat" (κάμπος - kampos).
Now, here's the interesting twist: This village has been inhabited, since early 20th century, by Pontic Greek/Turkish-speaking immigrants coming from Northern Turkey and the shores of the Black Sea. The village's initial name - at least in its Greek transliteration - was: mikro Sivindrik(i) ("mikro" meaning - same as above - "small"). It is also possible that the "v" sound is an "l" sound, although this has not been verified.
Now, it's interesting to note here that there is also an exact counterpart, namely "Megalo Sivindrik" (nowadays called "Megalokampos" - or "big plain"), leading me to believe that "sivindrik", or whatever it is that it comes from, actually represents something meaningful - most likely a noun, or a compound noun.
So... my question is, this last word being most definitely of Turkish origin: What can it possibly mean? Does it remind you of something?
Locals say it may have something to do with: "flood", "water", "swamp" or even an "earthquake" - though I can honestly find no direct connection whatsoever with any of these.
I've also spotted a Bulgarian linguist - my only semi-official source so far - tracing the root back to the greek island of Samothrace (Semadirek) - which after being adopted by the Bulgarians, later found its way into the Greek language and used by the local population. (Well, if you ask me, this explanation sounds a bit far-fetched to me, since I can find no relation between any of the parts in question - historically or geographically speaking)
However, manually going through a rather long and comprehensive list of roots (and, unfortunately, without speaking Turkish myself - other than having a general feel for it and some grasp of the grammar), I must admit I haven't come up with any... significant results.
Basically, all I've discovered can be summed up to this rather brief list of (possible) stems:
Am I any close? Or is any of those even correct?
What would you suggest? I'm literally all ears! ;-)
So, here I am and with a very interesting challenge for all of you...
There is a village in Drama (Eastern Macedonia) called "Mikrokampos" (Μικρόκαμπος), in Greek. Ιn English, this cοuld be roughly translated and... dissected as: "small" (μικρός - mikros) + "plain/flat" (κάμπος - kampos).
Now, here's the interesting twist: This village has been inhabited, since early 20th century, by Pontic Greek/Turkish-speaking immigrants coming from Northern Turkey and the shores of the Black Sea. The village's initial name - at least in its Greek transliteration - was: mikro Sivindrik(i) ("mikro" meaning - same as above - "small"). It is also possible that the "v" sound is an "l" sound, although this has not been verified.
Now, it's interesting to note here that there is also an exact counterpart, namely "Megalo Sivindrik" (nowadays called "Megalokampos" - or "big plain"), leading me to believe that "sivindrik", or whatever it is that it comes from, actually represents something meaningful - most likely a noun, or a compound noun.
So... my question is, this last word being most definitely of Turkish origin: What can it possibly mean? Does it remind you of something?
Locals say it may have something to do with: "flood", "water", "swamp" or even an "earthquake" - though I can honestly find no direct connection whatsoever with any of these.
I've also spotted a Bulgarian linguist - my only semi-official source so far - tracing the root back to the greek island of Samothrace (Semadirek) - which after being adopted by the Bulgarians, later found its way into the Greek language and used by the local population. (Well, if you ask me, this explanation sounds a bit far-fetched to me, since I can find no relation between any of the parts in question - historically or geographically speaking)
[...] Според Йордан Н. Иванов името Семендрик е турски изговор на името Самотраки [...]
However, manually going through a rather long and comprehensive list of roots (and, unfortunately, without speaking Turkish myself - other than having a general feel for it and some grasp of the grammar), I must admit I haven't come up with any... significant results.
Basically, all I've discovered can be summed up to this rather brief list of (possible) stems:
- sıvı = liquid, fluid, watery
- seviye/seviyeli = flat, plain
- şev = slope
- diri = alive
- direk = pole, mast
What would you suggest? I'm literally all ears! ;-)
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